Tuesday, August 28, 2012

How to create a CollageIn PicMonkey click on collage.Choose collage layout (2nd symbol)Upload photos, select several to load at once.Click on Auto Fill or arrange yourself.Note: whenever you get lost click on first symbol (Basic Edits). Mosaics

How to create a Mosaic

click on Collages.

Choose Square Deal for Layout.

Upload your photos.

Arrange photos.

Get acquainted with symbols on left, such as transparencies, background color and photos.

Overlays

How to make the round photograph I cannot divulge. That secret belongs to Rosemary of "Where Five Valleys Meet"

Overlays can be round, oval, square, etc.

It's the first photo you select that determines the shape.

How to make Overlays.

Go to Edit in Green photo box.

Upload your photo.

Click on third symbol from bottom in basic edits (heart, star and bubble).

Go to top and click on Your Own .

Select a photo from your files. Arrange size and place position of photo within first image.

Repeat as often as you like.

You can also edityour photos by using "Erase" .

And if you have erased too much the "paintbrush" will correct your mistake.The overlay feature can also be used for creating watermarks and Collages.PicMonkey has wonderful tutorials which will walk you through all of their features.

PicMonkey was designed by the same folks who created the original Picnik program.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

One of the challenges, when traveling in Europe, is finding the perfect place the night before flying home. After many years we have found two such perfect places. One outside of Rome and the other near Paris.It must be close to the airport.

The surrounding area should be interesting, a place where you can go for a stroll to stretch your legs before the long flight home. Ostia Antica is such a place.

A nice Hotel where you can get a good nights rest.

The Rodrigo de Vivar Hotel is inside the Medieval Borgo by the old Castle of Giulio II della Rovere in the Center of Ostia Antica. The hotel is a 20 minutes drive from Rome's Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino airport. The center of Rome is an hour away.

edreams.it

The Hotel must be easy to find.You will see the Castle Tower as you drive into town.The hotel is inside the ancient stone arch.

And right across the street from the hotel are the fantastic excavations of Ostia Antica, the ancient harbor of Rome, now silted up. You can walk along Ostia's mile-long paved streets.

You can spend hours wandering through this very large excavation admiring ancient architecture and mosaics.

At its peak Ostia Antica covered 10,000 acres.

adapted from ostiaanticahotelsOstia Antica is serene and cool. The perfect place to spend the day before flying home. Next week I will tell you about my favorite hotel near the Paris Airport. Have a great remainder of the week, my dear Blogging Friends.Gina

Gather a few herbs and a perfect rose. Build the nosegay in your hand, beginning with the rose in the center. Place herbs all around.

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Add a lace doily and a pretty ribbon.

I purchased quite a few lace flower holders while in Italy. They are made especially for Tussie-Mussies. Mine have a plastic coating so that they can stand up to a little extra moisture.

You can make your own Tussie-Mussie holders. Here is how: stack 2 round paper doilies together (2 for extra strength) and fold in half. Repeat folding in half until you have a fan shape. Cut a small hole into bottom of fan. Unfold, place on top of vase and start filling with flowers and herbs.

Give to a friend as a token of affection.

Have a lovely week my dear Blogging Friends.

And don't forget to solve the flower puzzle of my previous post.It pays off handsomely if you get it right.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Because they are placed on either side of my fountain, they should be the same color, don't you think? They are made of a strange material, some kind of plastic and very lightweight. The wind could blow them over if they were not in a protected alcove.

All of these urns were cast from the same design. One is fairly new, one much older and given patina by weather. I painted two urns with acrylic paints.

Pineapple, the symbol of hospitality, on the left not painted and on the right, the same cement Pineapple design, painted and left out for years in all kinds of weather. Both paint and weather have done their job.

Cement and acrylic paints are made for each other. Painted my hall fireplace almost 20 years ago. No sign of peeling or damage from intensive heat.

Acrylic paints and gold leaf were directly applied to raw cement on my upstairs fireplace. Both treatments have lasted many, many years with no sign of wear.

You might want to give it a try. It's one of the easiest paint treatments around.

So here is the question: Do you think that paint improves cement pieces?